Red Raven Comics #1 (1940)
by Martin A. Bursten & Louis Cazeneuve
cover Jack Kirby & Joe Simon
In the Golden Age, it was very rare for a superhero to have his name on the comic’s title. Superman was the first, followed by the original Blue Beetle and Batman.
For what would eventually become Marvel Comics, that honor doesn’t belong to the Human Torch or Namor or even Captain America, who hasn’t debuted yet.
No, the first Marvel character to get his name on the comic’s title is Red Raven.
Also known as “that’s not the Golden Age Angel”, “that’s not Hawman” and “who?”.
A few words on the credits. The cover is by Jack Kirby, and this issue does feature Kirby’s earliest work for Marvel (technically Timely back then) in a story written by Joe Simon that I’ll cover later.
The Red Raven story is credited to “Martin A. Bursten”.
In 1970, Jim Steranko wrote in his volume on the history of the Golden Age that Bursten was just a pen name for Jack Kirby.
However, in 1990 Gary Groth interviewed Joe Simon himself in Comics Journal 134 and he clarified that no, Bursten (actually a pseudonym for Burstein) really WAS a real guy!
The same year, Joe Simon published his biography “Comic Book Makers” which set the record straight.
Bursten had completely left the world of comics long before Marvel was a thing, so no real damage to his reputation… but it’s a stark reminder that:
A) you should ALWAYS double check your sources (I’m been guilty of the same mistake myself)
B) people have been way too eager to attribute ANYTHING to Kirby for a long time
Source for all the above:
https://comicbookhistorians.com/martin-bursten-is-not-jack-kirby/
Alright, now that we have established who wrote this… what DID he write?
We begin with a plane crashing into a flying island. As you do.
The only survivor from the crash is a baby, and he’s rescued by the bird-people living on the flying island.
All the people on this island have wings. And I guess they reproduce asexually because we don’t see a single woman.
Which might as well be the case, considering the bird-people EVOLVED FROM BIRDS on a “gravity-free island”.
Sounds legit.
For a supposedly enlightened civilizations, you jumped to “stab the baby” frighteningly fast!!!
Twenty years later, the baby is now ready to be sent back to his people with the name Red Raven.
Wait, so he didn’t have a name for twenty years!? I seriously doubt he remembered his human one!
I know 1940 is not exactly humanity’s best year, but I get the feeling Red Raven would have the same comment any other time.
Unlike Thin Man, who decide to use the knowledge of another civilization to defend taxicabs from being shot, Red Raven’s first act after rejoining humanity is GET A JOB.
A fight ensues, for basically no reason.
This is where we meet our villain in his subterranean castle (???) through his Gazegrapho Machine™: Zeelmo.
It’s important to note that Zeelmo has no idea Red Raven is from the sky island: all he’s seen him do is resisting arrest. But that’s enough to employ MISSILES to recruit him!!!
Zeelmo seriously reminds me of the modern version of Lex Luthor, which is quite funny considering his first appearance was just a few months old at this point and he looked nothing like Lex Luthor.
Red Raven’s answer is to just throw the offer back at Zeelmo!
Zeelmo has quite impressive technology for 1940.
Looks like the comic forgot to introduce a love interest. No problem, she just show out of nowhere as another prisoner of Zeelmo!
It’s a pity that Red Raven didn’t take off in popularity like the Human Torch.
Instead of “Flame On!”, we could’ve had “My membranous wings may save us!” as a catchphrase.
You might expect Red Raven to save her without problems, but nope: there’s still the issue of the aging gas!
Girl, you’ve been trapped inside a dungeon that makes you age super-fast where you met a guy with wings… be impressed, dammit!!!
Thankfully Red Raven does make it out of the dungeon, and he blops Zeelmo’s henchmen.
Rather than following Zeelmo, Red Raven decides to BLOW UP THE DUNGEON and kill him!!!
In a stunning move, the girl does NOT turn into Red Raven’s love interest! He drops her immediately after learning her name (Andreva, if you’re curious).
Zeelmo might be dead, but his partner-in-crime Ratoga (???) has taken over the business.
Red Raven has no clue on how to find him, but thankfully the bird people gift him an Element Detector™.
Looks like he’ll have to do some detective work the old-fashioned way: advertising!
Notice he’s lying about being the one to invent the Element Detector™, but he’s not lying about what it does!
Ratoga’s goon show up, but he easily overwhelms them. It’s not clear at this point in the story if Red Raven’s wings are organic or not, but in this panel it looks like he’s putting them on.
It doesn’t take much for Red Raven to get an answer from the goons…
…aaaand he’s captured IMMEDIATELY.
You’d think the criminals would JUST SHOOT HIM ALREADY, but instead they decide to throw him inside a Vibrato-Machine©.
Which I guess is supposed to shake him to death, but he’s fine.
We haven’t seen much of Ratoga so far, but apparently he’s worse than Zeelmo.
He also has a Futurescope™, which begs the question: HOW DOES THIS GUY LOSE if he can see the future!?
Well I guess his machine didn’t predict he would DROWN IN GOLD.
And that’s how we end the story!
So he defeated poverty in his first story? Not bad.
Historical significance: 0/10
Even if Red Raven does show up again… it’s Red Raven.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Zeelmo’s aging dungeon, Ratoga’s Futurescope™ and the bird people’s technology… not to mention the floating island and people evolving from birds… yeah this is pretty high.
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
It’s a pretty standard Golden Age origin story. It stands out a little over some of the competition by making Red Raven EXTREMELY direct in his approach to basically anything. And it has time to breathe: with 17 pages, it’s relatively long for this era.
How close is this to the modern character? What modern character?
This was the ONLY Red Raven story of the Golden Age, and the only issue of “Red Raven Comics” because #2… is actually re-titled Human Torch #2, which I will cover in full because it’s the first appearance of Toro.
The Human Torch series would last until 1948, with “The Human Torch #35” succeeded by “Lova Tales #36”. Yes, these are all technically from the same series which is ALSO technically the same of Red Raven Comics.
But what about Red Raven himself? He showed up again in 1968 on X-Men #44.
That’s a story written by Gary Friedrich and plotted by, who else, Roy Thomas. Considering it’s Roy Thomas, I have no doubt that bringing back Red Raven was HIS idea.
Notice Red Raven still has bat-like wings, something noticeable when he’s in the same scene of Angel.
Roy Thomas would write Red Raven again on Sub-Mariner #26 in 1970, still with bat wings.
But in 1976 he wrote him again in Marvel Premiere #29, this time changing them to bird wings. Which I guess makes more sense since he’s called Red Raven, but they make him look more generic.
The Bird People were eventually retconned into being an offshoot of the Inhumans.
His last appearance to date is in 2015 on “All-New Captain America Special”; by this time he’s lost his people and he’s mutated further, but at least he’s reconciled with a (then-aged) Captain America.
He’s even survived his daughter Dania, who took over the Red Raven identity in 1991 but was killed in 2012.
What else was in Red Raven Comics #1?
TWO stories penciled by Jack Kirby. I’ll talk about the more important one in a separate review, but we also have space pilot Comet Pierce.
This is the only story where he shows up.
It’s a very old-fashioned sci-fi story, even for the times, and Kirby’s style hasn’t developed to its fullest yet. But even this far back, it’s gorgeous.
Then there’s the Human Top, who as the name suggests gets the power to spin really really fast.
Since he activates his power by crossing his wrists (???), the bad guys have an unusual way to deal with him.
He’s also powerful enough to MOVE A WHOLE SHIP.
He’s technically the first Marvel speedster, since his story in the book is published before the OTHER speedster that I’ll review next time… so the Human Top COULD have been a rival for Flash’s popularity.
Unfortunately he only has 2 Golden Age stories: this one and an issue of “Tough Kid Squad Comics”… yes, that’s really the name of the series… where he’s not even the title character!
Plus a comedy story…
… and the only “Magar the Mystic” story ever, which remains completely uncredited.
First Ibis, then Marvel Boy… what is it with people from Egypt waking up in the 40s?
At least this one is not from ANCIENT Egypt.
It’s a pity that this story remains uncredited, because for the Golden Age that’s some great artwork.
Magar has a pretty interesting power: he can summon dead people to help him. This is two years before Kid Eternity made it his gimmick!
As far as I know, this is the only story in all of fiction when the ghosts of both Napoleon and Wellington are summoned to fight together.
The fact this has not happened again is a failure of humanity as a species.
And finally, we have the Eternal Brain.
Despite being published in 1940, the story technically takes place in the 80s… or 50 years after Lindbergh designed the glass perfusion pump in 1935.
Yes, that Charles Lindbergh.
Eternal Brain pre-dates Robotman by decades! He has to rely on a fully bodied sidekick, though.
Thanks to being TECHNICALLY set in the 80s, Roger Stern and John Byrne brought him back in “The Lost Generation” as one of the pre-Fantastic Four heroes.
He last showed up in 2012 on “Marvel Zombies Destroy!”, of all places, courtesy of Peter David.
For some reason he decided to make him one of the Eternals, which… really doesn’t may any sense if you think about it for two seconds.
He dies in the last issue by growing himself large enough to distract a horde of interdimensional zombie Nazis. Did I mention it’s an Howard The Duck miniseries?
So he wasn’t THAT Eternal.
Considering there’s no shortage of other brain-in-a-jar to be used, I’m not counting on Eternal Brain to show up again soon.